Researchers to expand malaria vaccine study after initial trial yields encouraging results

Encouraged by early results of a study of an experimental malaria vaccine involving 45 children in Burkina Faso, researchers led by Pierre Druilhe at the Pasteur Institute in Paris are set to expand the clinical trial, resulting in a larger study involving 800 children in Mali, BBC News reports. The initial trial aimed "to test the safety of the vaccine but this follow up study found that children who received it had an incidence of the disease three to four times lower than children who did not," BBC writes.

"Around a hundred different malaria vaccine candidates have been developed to date but the MSP3 vaccine tested in Burkina Faso is only the second one to show a substantial level of protection against the illness," the news service writes. "There have been too many claims of effective vaccines so we have to remain very cautious. It has to be confirmed and we have started on work to do that confirmation," Druilhe said, according to BBC (McGrath, 9/21).